The other morning Steve rolled over smiled, and said “One month down! 35 to go!” As fast-paced and busy as things are we love being here in the Tokyo South Mission. We have been blessed with some very talented, dedicated missionaries and we enjoy serving with them. Missions function on a six week cycle and we have completed one of those so we feel like we know a bit better what is expected of us.

People warned us when we arrived that beds in Japan are very hard and that we would need to purchase a mattress topper in order to sleep at night. We haven’t had a problem. Every night we drop into bed worn out from the day. Of course, staying asleep in the night is not always a given. Thankfully, the middle-of-the-night calls have become less common the past few weeks.

Grandchild #11

We received our best news last week. Rockwell Manumālō Maiava joined our family. It had been a concern for us so we were happy to receive the news and pictures on our Sunday, (their Saturday) that he had arrived and mom and baby were doing well. In our setting apart by Elder Anderson, he said our children would receive blessings because of our service and that promise has been fulfilled over and over. They have been so blessed that we are afraid our children won’t want us to come home when the time comes. Loa is so excited to have her little brother.

Happy Reunion

Many years ago when Steve first arrived as a missionary in the Japan Osaka Mission he met a woman, Miyako Soda. She felt sorry for him because he was so young, far from home and couldn’t speak a lick of Japanese. She decided to take him under her wing and be his Japanese mother. She was so kind and good to him his entire mission. When he transferred she continued to bring him American food. He partially blames her for his 30 lbs. gained on his mission but he knows deep in his heart he has only himself to blame. When we visited in 2018 we went with her daughter to see her in a care center. She was very very frail then. We held her hand and visited with her even though we weren’t sure she was even aware of us. She died shortly after our visit. Steve has been in contact with her children and so we thought we should reach out to them and let them know we are living in the Tokyo area. Steve contacted the oldest son, Yoshinori, and told him where we were living. When we had visited in 2018 Yoshinori was living in the Phillipines because of his job so we were unable to see him then. To our surprise, Yoshinori replied that he lives just 30 minutes from us in Kawasaki. We had wonderful reunion with Yoshinori and met his wife, Kimiko last week when they came to our home for dinner. Before they arrived Steve was able to find pictures on his computer from 44 years ago showing Yoshinori as a young man, his mother cooking, etc. It was a delightful evening. Yoshinori told Steve he felt like his mother was always so strict with him but she was always so kind and soft spoken with Steve. There seem to be no hard feelings because of that.

“There is no space in the which there is no kingdom” (D&C 88:37)

One of the many things we like about Japan is there ability to take what little space they have and add something to make it cute and homey. Even if they only have four square feet they will take it and make it beautiful. When we walk I always like to look at what they have done with their space.

Missionary Interviews

Every six weeks Steve is required to interview all 135 of our missionaries. It takes several days and entails a lot of driving but has allowed us to leave the busy downtown Tokyo area and see the surrounding areas. Whenever we see dark, freshly tilled dirt it is difficult to keep Laurie in the car. She wants to jump out and sink her hands into it. Our APs ride along with us and we get to visit with them. Elder Son was born in Korea and lives in Australia. Elder Silva is from Brazil. They are both wonderful Elders and we couldn’t do it without them. They keep us on our toes, and help us remember where we need to be and when.

We love getting to see where our missionaries are serving and also the opportunity to visit with them one-on-one. While Steve is interviewing in one room Laurie gets to visit with the companion in another room. It’s a precious time to get to know them better, learn about them and their families, and to assess how they are doing in the mission. Along with passing out hugs to the sisters and sharing love to the Elders, Laurie distributes cookies. No wonder they look forward to the interviews!

Recently we were interviewing in Kanagawa. We hadn’t eaten all day in order to make it to the next interviews and we were hungry. We decided to walk down the hill to the train station where one can typically find good food. It was a warm evening and we could hear thunder and see lightning off in the distance but there was no rain. We ate and climbed the hill to return to our van. We started on our way and about ten minutes into our drive the rain started to come down in torrents. Steve had the wipers going as fast as possible but we still couldn’t see much. We were driving on a toll road (there are no such things in our mission as freeways) and large trucks would pass, shooting up buckets of water all over our van. We couldn’t see but we could feel when we hit big puddles of water because it would throw the car off balance. It was a scary time and we were so grateful when ten minutes later the rain slowed down and we could see more clearly. That night in our prayers we were sure to give thanks for our safe travels. In fact, we do that often. Driving is one of the most difficult things here – even with GPS. It takes two of us. Laurie navigates and Steve drives. We have taken many a wrong turn here and it usually adds a lot more time on. We always give ourselves at least 30 minutes leeway to make sure we arrive on time. Steve says Tokyo roads make him think someone just threw a handful of spaghetti down on a table and said “This is our transportation design!” Because some roads are stacked three high it is sometimes hard to follow the GPS because it will say turn left and there is no left turn.

We attend/speak in a different ward each week. We enjoy getting out with the members and seeing our missionaries serving in that ward. Without fail, we have met someone who attended BYUH in every ward. In Machida we met a couple that had attended fifty years ago when it was the Church College of Hawaii. Two of their children have attended BYUH along with their grandchildren.

We love visitors!!

BYUH’s representatives Maurice Mo’o, his wife Ma’o and their daughter, Keni and Rachel Kalama were here recruiting and we were able to have dinner with them. (Maurice served in the stake presidency with Steve and Keni was a counselor in one of the bishoprics.) It was so good to see familiar faces, eat some good food and talk about the good times we had at BYUH. It sometimes seems so long ago that we were there.

“One of these things is not like the others. . .”

During all the driving we have been doing from area to area to interview all the missionaries, we have seen several things that just don’t look like they fit in in Japan. As you will see in our pictures, masks are still a very big thing here – but then again, they wore a lot of masks back in the early 80s when we were serving here. They must just like masks?

On our morning walks we explore the city, going down little side streets to stay off the main big roads that are busy and loud. We found this little treasure down a little street and even though this is a Toyota it still seems to be something you would see driven in the United States and not in Japan.

“I feel the earth move under my feet.”

Tokyo has earthquakes all the time. A few days ago a 7.1 earthquake hit about 1,000 miles south of us and Japan declared a national emergency for the next ten days, warning that a larger earthquake could happen and we should be prepared. That is a worrisome thing when you are in charge of 135 missionaries because their safety is a big concern. When an earthquake occurs, which it does often in our mission, all the missionaries are instructed to text us that they are safe and where their current location is. It’s not uncommon for our phones to blow up with texts even though we might not have felt one ourselves where we are. Everyone was ask to go through the safety drill and make sure they were familiar with their designated evacuation place. Some of our missionaries live close to the ocean so they have the chance of tsunamis also. In all the earthquake happenings we got a warning that a typhoon (the same things as a hurricane) was coming our way. There have been several this season but they have gone around us. This one was coming right toward us. We were blessed that it passed by with just a lot of rain and wind.

“Miracles all around us.”

As we strive to do God’s work we see miracles all around us. In the weekly missionary letters the missionaries share miracles with us. Our missionaries have wanted to serve more in Japan so they have been looking for those opportunities. This past week a couple of our elders went to see if they could help in a place they serve food for the less fortunate. When they approached the director he told them he didn’t need them and that the people who came to his place don’t have money so he wasn’t sure why our elders would want to help there. They tried to explain to him that it wasn’t about money, they just wanted to serve. He was curt with them and refused their help. Just as they were speaking another volunteer came in and asked the director about the 75 meals that had been promised earlier. There had been a misunderstanding and the people needed those meals immediately. He looked at the missionaries, as they were his only hope, and asked if they would be willing to help. Naturally, they jumped right in and started to work. Through that experience the director was allowed to see the hearts of our missionaries, that they truly want to serve, and he asked if they would come back and help next week.

The greatest miracle is one we see every day in our 18 and 19 year old missionaries that sacrifice to be here and learn one of the most difficult languages in such a short period of time. Yesterday we had the opportunity to listen to one of our Fillipino sisters teach a lesson. She has only been in the mission for four months but her language was so impressive. She is a sweet, humble sister and so willing to do the things that God has called her to do. It is truly a miracle that testifies to us that this is God’s work and we feel so blessed that we get to help with it. People have said “if the church wasn’t true the missionaries would have ruined it long ago.” But it is His church and He guides and directs it. We feel Him guiding and directing us too as we do our best to lead this mission.